Currency effects and the loss of about £20m in commission revenues from Anglo Platinum took the shine off Johnson Matthey’s (JMAT) half-year figures. Strip out these "significant headwinds", however, and sales grew 10 per cent. That was mainly thanks to the success of the group's Emission Control Technologies (ECT) division, which sells catalytic converters. Investors were sufficiently cheered to send the shares up 6 per cent on results day.
Stricter EU and Chinese regulations for vehicle emissions boosted ECT sales, and strong demand for heavy duty diesel trucks in North America also helped. Underlying operating profit at the division rose by a quarter to £118m. Management are confident that legislators will continue to view the benefits of higher air quality as outweighing the fairly small installation costs.